Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Challenge

Can YOU promote positive change and challenge misconceptions about the skills and talents of individuals with disabilities?


Enter the "What can YOU do?" Video Contest!

About the Contest

The Campaign for Disability Employment’s “What can YOU do?” Video Contest is an opportunity for YOU to promote positive change by illustrating that at work, it’s what people CAN do that matters.

This national video contest promotes the talent and skills that people with disabilities bring to America’s workplaces and economy, in support of the CDE’s national effort to increase the employment of people with disabilities.

Previous Winning Video
"Meet Sue" By Blake Watson 




Wednesday, February 8, 2012

3 Interview Questions To Avoid



Friendly. Harmless. Deadly.


More employees, more problems. Seriously! 


When hiring a new member of your team, do you know what questions to avoid? Some questions you may consider to be friendly or harmless can cause more harm than you ever thought imaginable. Hiring an individual is serious business and done wrong, you could be in serious trouble.


Avoid asking the following questions during job interviews:


How Old Are You?

Age related questions are never, never, never.... NEVER appropriate to ask a candidate during a job interview. Age is such a hot issue that there is Federal law prohibiting discrimination based upon ones age. If you, for whatever reason, must inquire about a candidates age, do so by asking more appropriate, more indirect questions, such as: Are you over 18? ... This question is generally safe to ask. 

When Did You Move To The United States?

You can and should always verify a persons legal right to obtain employment in the United States. However, you should never ask a candidate directly about citizenship or their birth country. 

Are You [Insert Any Religion Here]?

I can't ever imagine a time when a candidates personal religious affiliations would ever be any of your concern. You should never ask about a persons religious affiliations. Because some religions observe certain days/holidays as days when work can not be done, you can ask about a candidates availability. When asking about a candidates availability, you should always inform the candidate that your organization does make reasonable exceptions for people to exercise their religious beliefs. 

Above are 3 interview questions to avoid asking candidates during job interviews. There are many more questions you should avoid asking interviewees to avoid legal issues. Educate yourself. Hiring is serious business. 



Sunday, February 5, 2012

Why You Should Hire The Unemployed


  1. Positive pr for the brand of your organization.
  2. Tax incentives.
  3. Possible missed opportunities. 
  4. Those that have been unemployed for an extended period are less likely to quit. 


Thursday, February 2, 2012

Hiring People That Fail



"I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy."

-Tony Robbins

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The failures of your employees are the successes of your employees.

When you hire people that have made mistakes and/or allow people to make mistakes after you have hired them, you hire/have hired people that are forced to look back at their mistakes, figure out what went wrong and strategically execute a new plan of action. While all employees won't do this, any employee worth their salt, worth your time and consideration, will do, and has already done this. When hiring candidates for your open positions, ask them, directly, how they have accomplished this. Ask them what and how they have learned from and improved upon due to their failures. If they can not answer the question or they claim to have always been successful in their professional endeavors, they may not know what has made them successful; therefor, chances of them being able to duplicate past success, if it exists, will be slim to none.

To truly demand success from your employees, you must first, and always, demand failure. If your employees are not failing, they are not learning. If you employees are not learning, they are not advancing. If your employees are not advancing, they are not of value to your organization. If your employees are not of value to your organization, you are wasting your organizations time and resources. Mistakes proceed both innovation and success, both of which are at the heart of all successful organizations.

Demanding success by demanding failure starts during your hiring process. Ask about previous failures during your interviews with candidates. Getting candidates to acknowledge their previous failures is the first step. After you get candidates to acknowledge their failures, you then, and only then, can see if they have the ability to turn their failures into successes. While everyone can fail, not everyone can convert their failures into successes. Without a candidates ability to do this, you can not intelligently require that they be successful; they simply do not possess the ability to do so. Success requires the ability to successfully fail. All failure is not successful failure.